Carputer anyone?

[Rm2s]

Anyone here installed a computer in their car? Any experience to share?

[Xiaogary]

labtop considered?

[Alan22]

ermm i tot of doing so.. but scare the heat will kill some component inside the computer .... and the vibration + shakes could also affect the comp..

it comsume alot of power also.. heheh u got to start ur engine b4 u power up ur pc.. or else u will end up pushing ur car

[Rm2s]

There are purposely built hardware these days for car environment. Take a look at www.mp3car.com quite an interesting site.

 

Locally I believe Mobycar or something like that has been using Mac Mini to drive all its functionality, but they charge quite a bit to custom install it.

[Blackyv]

since police car have it, dont think it's not possible..just the matter of $$$...

[Poortraveller]

i oso tot of using Imac mini, add some wireless mouse and keypad and a small LCD screen ...

 

but the issue is how to power it up?

[Alan22]

cool...to custom instal all these can be done easily.. juz go sim lim and get the dc to ac inverter.. cost quite abit i think... plug it into ur ciggi plug and run ur pc from there.. but i think it will be quite stressful for ur alternator and batt too...

[Alan22]

using dc to ac inverter which can be purchase from sls....

[Rm2s]

Actually car PC should only use motherboard and other low power components. Some people suggest total consumption of below 60W and when the PC goes into hibenation, it should use very minimal power (in mA) so that it would not drain the battery.

 

The are circuitry that are sold in the web that will help protect your battery.

 

This is a whole new area, a lot of reading up to do.

[Alan22]

ya alot to read up on this..also need to check with rov if the lcd is approve if its viewable from driver view

[Mavvy]

a reasonable budget for it is around 2k-3k.... anything lower is quite hard to find..

[Rm2s]

You have a good point there. I remember sometime ago, not sure if it is still valid, all video screens should not faced the driver (except, of course, if it is a navigation system).

[Yeobh]

Click for car computer components http://www.sd-omega.com/

[Rm2s]

Very interesting.

 

For now, Mac Mini seems like a very attractive option. It will run Virtual PC also and perhaps get the best of both worlds. A stable machine and can use some of the PC apps.

[Alan22]

ermm bro and theres a rule stating tat LCD tat is rewithin drivers view got to be fix witha switch to the handbrake.. tat means when handbrake is down.. the screen will turn off...

[Bluemice]

bro, the maxV a PC needs is +12V, the rest are +5V, there are also a rare instance of -12V( for the serial coms) and the even rarer -5V...

 

in most cases its the current that is the trouble maker... also i dun think its possible to "ON" the PC while cranking... before can, use car batt...

 

Average PC, needs abt 200W PSU, which means current of the 12V line + current of 5V line = 200W. and this PC, assuming onboard gfx( in this case i m tokin) is a GF4MX onboard gfx, Barton 2500+ PC, wif a Hdd, using onboard gfx, sound, lan, etc... the Hdd can even be replaced by solid state SD/MS/etcc....( this one i didnt investigate further)

 

back to the PSU, u can actually "tap" not directly from the car 12V line, but wif protection....

 

wat i hv is a mATX PC, which was org. planned as phase 1, HTPC connected to wireless to my main PC to watch movies in my TV, then phase 2, to chg that into a car-puter. but didnt do it due to the damping required and the PSU issue.... not ez to solve....as the physical n electrical vibrations is gonna kill them.... unless we chg all to solid state devices...

 

mice

[Alan22]

wah bro.. this is really a valuable info man...im doing more research on it too...

[Bluemice]

er... bro, one more 3.3V is needed for the RAM.... 4gotten abt that.

 

if u wanna we can arrange a time to chat ... i m betta in PC than cars...

 

we can share share ...

 

mice